How Would We Start Life on Another Planet?

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The discussion revolves around the theoretical process of colonizing a habitable planet, assuming it has water, vegetation, and a climate similar to Earth. Participants suggest that colonization could begin by transporting life forms, such as sheep and plants, to establish a sustainable ecosystem. The concept of terraforming is introduced, which involves modifying a planet's environment to make it more Earth-like, and participants reference existing discussions and literature on this topic. There is also speculation about the feasibility of mining resources from gas giants to aid in terraforming efforts. The conversation touches on the long timeline required for such endeavors, with some expressing skepticism about the practicality of these plans, especially regarding the slow pace of technological advancements and the time it would take to see results.
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Assuming we can ever find another habitable planet and can get there, how the heck would we start to colonise it.
If there is water, vegetation and there is~the same climate of Earth.
 
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To get the rough idea, play alpha centauri.
 
I would assume by traveling there with an array of equipment.
 
We can even start life on planets that do not resemble Earth. We should start by polluting it.
 
wolram said:
how the heck would we start to colonise it.
Well wolram - a mummy physicist and a daddy physicist who love each other very much have a special sort of cuddle and ...
 
infect it. send sheep. fishes. piggies. whatever can survive on the vegetation and is useful and not a threat to us. and other vegetation, like fruits and legumes, that are useful to us. we show up a few years later when the populations of these animals are at sustainable levels, with knives and shears and spears.
 
You don't even need to have the same conditions presently found on earth, to colonize a planet. There is a concept of terraformation or planet engineering. There are lots of discussions on how to accomplish this. Here is a one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming" .

Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it habitable by humans.
We also have some threads on terraformation. Here is one on https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=199582".

If a planet already has the same conditions we have on earth, all we need to do is; build an ark, fill it with life, and take a trip over there and set up shop.. It would be a good idea to try out all the lifeforms in an *engineered biosphere on Earth first, to make sure we didn't forget to bring along something important. :rolleyes:

*engineered biosphere - this concept was attempted in the Biosphere2
 
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mgb_phys said:
Well wolram - a mummy physicist and a daddy physicist who love each other very much have a special sort of cuddle and ...


You mean some guys dips their wicks and nine month later we have some little candles.
 
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I've always wondered if mining chemicals out of the gas giants will ever be feasible; there seem to be lots of engineering problems surrounding that. But if so, and if it could be done with some sort of autonomous robots, it seems like they could be used to fling blocks of water ice and whatever else would be needed for terraforming towards Mars or Venus. After a few hundred years of that maybe we can start selling real estate.
 
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wolram said:
You mean some guys dips their wicks and nine month later we have some little candles.

Yes, but this is on another planet, so the spawns would spit acid and have 5 legs. I mean, they're aliens, right?
 
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CaptainQuasar said:
After a few hundred years of that maybe we can start selling real estate.


That's the problem with all of these get-rich-quick schemes. They're not quick. Hundreds of years? I don't have that kind of time. I got things to see and people to do.

So, give me more time and I'll be able to wait until your shiny robots painstakingly transfer ice from a red giant 3 AU away 1kg block at a time.
 
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